An end-run around gerrymandering?

[LMNO]

Some of you poli-sci folk want to take a crack at this?

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/20/a_modest_proposal_to_neutralize_gerrymandering/

If you register as the party that controls your disctrict, you can make decisions on who wins primaries.

[Junkenstein]

I see what he's getting at, but I'm not sold on this being a viable way to change the system. It seems more like "How do I collude with the system less".

What could be much, much more fun would be to register to vote and then publicise the hell out of the worst candidates. In a positive "I'm HELPING" fashion. Make your own side want to vote for the less crazy option. Because they don't want to support the known lunatic.

This is all pretty much moot anyway as I'd suspect the numbers required to do this effectively are nowhere near possible. For every kool kid you convince that this is the way you've got a crazy senile guy who will shoot you before voting for X. (note to self, fairly sure the US has an aging population. Check this or maybe someone knows)

[Reginald Ret]

I see what he's getting at, but I'm not sold on this being a viable way to change the system. It seems more like "How do I collude with the system less".

What could be much, much more fun would be to register to vote and then publicise the hell out of the worst candidates. In a positive "I'm HELPING" fashion. Make your own side want to vote for the less crazy option. Because they don't want to support the known lunatic.

This is all pretty much moot anyway as I'd suspect the numbers required to do this effectively are nowhere near possible. For every kool kid you convince that this is the way you've got a crazy senile guy who will shoot you before voting for X. (note to self, fairly sure the US has an aging population. Check this or maybe someone knows)

The average number of offspring per woman is a good indication. USA has 2.06¹.
2 would be a replacement rate, this means there is no population growth from reproduction. Then the only influences on average age would be health services and immigration. Since the health services have consistently been getting better over the last decades and immigration is mostly done by young adults² you can assume that having a replacementrate close to two would mean the population has on average been getting older at the same rate that health services have been getting better minus the effect of immigrants.


¹https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html
²http://cis.org/2012-profile-of-americas-foreign-born-population#7

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Another good indicator is how well the funeral industry is doing.

[Junkenstein]

Appreciated, I'm clearly wrong there.

So maybe the way to play it is to push immigrants towards the parties that dislike them?

[LMNO]

Appreciated, I'm clearly wrong there.

So maybe the way to play it is to push immigrants towards the parties that dislike them?

There is something very wrong about the way that sounds.  Not quite the "P" word, nor the "R", but it's getting close.

[Junkenstein]

Appreciated, I'm clearly wrong there.

So maybe the way to play it is to push immigrants towards the parties that dislike them?

There is something very wrong about the way that sounds.  Not quite the "P" word, nor the "R", but it's getting close.

It is terribly worded.

What I'm thinking is that the parties that actively oppose your interests are the ones you probably have more of a chance of influencing, even if it is in a negative fashion. For example, immigrants join tea party rallies on mass shouting about how bad immigration is. Agreement with them means agreeing with one of them.  There's probably enough closet and open racists in the tea party for things to fall to shit if there was decent percentage of non-white people involved.

If this sounds stupid, it probably is. My head is all over the show today dealing with idiot problems.